The Rufford Small Grants Foundation
Final Report
Congratulations on the completion of your project that was supported by The Rufford Small Grants
Foundation.
We ask all grant recipients to complete a Final Report Form that helps us to gauge the success of our
grant giving. We understand that projects often do not follow the predicted course but knowledge of
your experiences is valuable to us and others who may be undertaking similar work. Please be as
honest as you can in answering the questions – remember that negative experiences are just as
valuable as positive ones if they help others to learn from them.
Please complete the form in English and be as clear and concise as you can. We will ask for further
information if required. If you have any other materials produced by the project, particularly a few
relevant photographs, please send these to us separately.
Please submit your final report to jane@rufford.org.
Thank you for your help.
Josh Cole
Grants Director
Grant Recipient Details
Your name Zach J. Farris
Mad Dog Initiative: Controlling feral dogs to conserve
Madagascar’s wildlife at RNP, Madagascar
RSG reference 8964-1
Project title
Reporting period Final Report, July 2015
Amount of grant £ 5941; $9,737
Your email address zjfarris@vt.edu
Date of this report July 25, 2015
1. Please indicate the level of achievement of the project’s original objectives and include any
relevant comments on factors affecting this.
Not
Objective
achieved
Reduce the number
and impact of feral
and domestic dogs
at RNP
Partially
achieved
X
Fully
achieved
Monitor
dog
populations within
the forest pre- and
post- treatment via
photographic
sampling
X
Estimate carnivore
(native and exotic),
lemur, bird, and
small
mammal
population
parameters
X
Training of local
Malagasy
veterinarians, vet
students,
and
technicians
X
Comments
Our aim was to reduce the impact of
dogs through an expansive spay/neuter
and vaccination program and the
number of dogs via trap, removal
programme. We were highly successful
in our efforts to spay, neuter, and
vaccinate dogs surrounding RNP;
however, we were unsuccessful in
trapping feral dogs within the forest.
Our team has amassed 5 years of photo
surveys pre-treatment and now have 2
years of photo surveys post-initial
treatment. Further, we are collaborating
with the TEAM network to receive
continued multi-season (multi-year)
photo surveys of these sites in the
coming years.
My students, collaborators, and I are
already working to organise manuscripts
that provide the first population
estimates for multiple taxa at RNP and
once our final photo surveys are
completed for 2015 we will finalise these
multi-year estimates comparing pre- and
post-treatment estimates.
Over the past two years we have had the
privilege of working with three Malagasy
vets, two vet students, and several
technicians on this project. We were
able to provide extensive training for
these vets and vet students and we will
continue this training in the coming year,
thus allowing us to continue these
spay/neuter and vaccination procedures
for the coming years.
Conduct
villagefocused social study
to
determine
ultimate cause of
feral dog problems
at RNP
X
Our team was able to conduct more
than 250 household surveys in 2014 and
more than 100 in 2015.
2. Please explain any unforeseen difficulties that arose during the project and how these were
tackled (if relevant).
The only project objective that our team was unable to carry out was the trapping and translocation
of feral dogs from forest habitat to the dog facility in Antananarivo, Madagascar. We believe this
resulted for two reasons: 1) from the photographic surveys by the TEAM network from 2010 to 2013
we witnessed a decrease in feral dog presence within RNP with particularly strong decreases in some
of our study sites; and 2) while we had photographic captures of feral dogs investigating our traps
along edge habitat the dogs did not appear to acclimate themselves to the traps and the traps were
never triggered with the dog inside the trap. Despite our inability to trap the feral dogs along edge
habitat surrounding RNP we were still able to assist local Valbio staff with finding homes for and
spaying/neutering unwanted pets in the surrounding villages.
3. Briefly describe the three most important outcomes of your project.
Our research team was able to spay/neuter and vaccinate 155 dogs and 15 cats and conduct more
than 350 household surveys at six villages bordering RNP. During this time, we were able to train
multiple Malagasy vets and vet students, thus ensuring this work can continue and expand into
other areas surrounding RNP. Finally, our ability to combine these control efforts with long-term
photographic sampling and population modelling of dogs and native carnivores, birds, and small
mammals ensures that we will be able to continue treating the dog population and monitoring their
effects on native wildlife across RNP.
As an added bonus, we were delighted to find that our project was recently awarded the Virginia
McKenna award from Compassionate Conservation and the Born Free Foundation
(http://compassionateconservation.net/project-integrating-biodiversity-conservation-dog-welfaremadagascar-wins-3rd-virginia-mckenna-award-compassionate-conservation) .
4. Briefly describe the involvement of local communities and how they have benefitted from the
project (if relevant).
Our project provided free spay/neuter and vaccination services for any and all local people who
owned a pet and desired these services. While working at each village our vet team met with local
leaders/elders to discuss current and long-term management plans, held town meetings to educate
local people and answer questions, and conducted talks with local children about research and
careers in conservation. In addition to this, our project hired 12 different people from local
communities, several of whom will remain with the project in the coming years. Finally, at least one
of the Malagasy vets, Dr Tsiky Rajaonarivelo, will travel to Canada to be trained by our team vet,
thus ensuring these feral/domestic dog procedures can continue to be provided for local people in
the coming years. Additionally, Dr Rajaonarivelo has agreed to train three additional Malagasy
veterinarians during the expedition next year.
5. Are there any plans to continue this work?
Yes, our team is currently seeking additional grants to organise a follow up field season to be led
entirely by our Malagasy vets, vet students, and research technicians for 2016 and 2017. We are
working to organise the international travel and training of our lead vet, Tsiky Rajaonarivelo, in late
2015 to ensure she is able to solely lead and direct the work in the coming years. In addition, we are
continuing our collaboration with Centre Valbio and the TEAM network to continue securing and
analysing data from photographic surveys across RNP for 2016 and the coming years.
6. How do you plan to share the results of your work with others?
We will be providing the first professional presentation of our work at the Compassionate
Conservation, Born Free annual conference on August 1st 2015, where our talk has been selected as
the keynote speech. Further, we have submitted abstracts for additional professional presentations
in late 2015 and early 2016. In addition, once our photo survey data are completed (July 31st 2015)
and entered I will begin modelling population parameters for manuscript preparation. I plan to
submit our work on population modelling (occupancy, density, and co-occurrence) pre- and posttreatment to the journal Animal Conservation or Journal of Zoology and our results on spay/neuter
and vaccinations and household surveys to Biodiversity and Conservation or Animal Conservation.
7. Timescale: Over what period was the RSG used? How does this compare to the anticipated or
actual length of the project?
We secured the funding in April 2014 for this project. We completed our first field season August to
October 2014. A follow up photographic survey was conducted by the Centre Valbio, TEAM network,
and our research technicians December to January 2015. We completed the final field season May to
July 2015. We completed the field work as anticipated and as described within our grant application.
8. Budget: Please provide a breakdown of budgeted versus actual expenditure and the reasons for
any differences. All figures should be in £ sterling, indicating the local exchange rate used.
Item
Lodging/Meals
Antananarivo (capital)
in
Budgeted
Amount
180
Actual
Amount
320
Difference
Comments
-140
We were required to remain in the
capital for 2 extra nights to handle
logistics and supplies
Lodging/Meals at RNP for
PI
1140
1210
-70
Lodging/Meals
for
Malagasy students and
vets
780
928
-148
RNP site guides
780
550
230
Malagasy vet per diem
1040
1075
-35
680
517
163
Moultrie game cameras
919
1022
-103
RNP Entrance Fees
142
0
142
Misc supplies (Dog food,
bait, copies, printing,
firewood, etc.)
150
198
-48
Part-time local guides
130
185
-55
TOTAL
5941
6005
-64
Malagasy
diem
student
per
This extra cost resulted from the need to
remain at the Valbio station for an extra
day due to transportation issues.
We brought on the local vet from
Ranomafana for an extended part of our
trip for training. This additional cost is
the result of that training period.
Our spays / neuters finished faster than
anticipated during the 2015 work and
we did not require our technicians for
the full amount of time.
The 2015 field work ended earlier than
expected.
We kept our graduate student on
budget for longer to help conduct extra
household surveys in 2014.
We were required to purchase
additional game cameras in 2015 to
replace cameras that malfunctioned
during the 2014 surveys.
RNP Entrance Fees were not required
for our team
We treated more dogs than expected
and conducted more household surveys
than expected, thus requiring additional
misc. supplies.
We hired extra local guides to assist with
setting up and taking down the camera
grids in 2014 and 2015, allowing our
camera surveys to run for longer.
9. Looking ahead, what do you feel are the important next steps?
The next step for our team is to secure funding to transport our team veterinarian to Canada to
receive extensive, 1-month training which will allow her to carry out all of the dog procedures for
subsequent years. This will allow us to transition to a full Malagasy run project for the 2016 and
2017 seasons. In addition, I will begin finalising the photo survey data from 2007 to 2013 from the
TEAM network, as well as our 2 years of photo survey data and will provide estimates of occupancy,
density, and co-occurrence for dogs and native wildlife across this region. Of utmost importance to
our team is to ensure that these dog spay/neuter and vaccination procedures, as well as the
continued photo surveys are all carried out for the next several years to properly evaluate the
effectiveness of this program.
10. Did you use the RSGF logo in any materials produced in relation to this project? Did the RSGF
receive any publicity during the course of your work?
Yes. The RSGF logo was presented on the acknowledgements slide at the keynote speech for the
flagship Compassionate Conservation presentation, and RSGF was publically thanked there. We also
thank RSGF and use the logo on our website, www.maddoginitiative.com. In addition to this, RSGF
will be acknowledged within all manuscripts produced from this research and we will include the
RSGF logo and acknowledgement in any and all professional presentations we provide moving
forward.